‘Murder By Fire’ by Faith Martin

Synopsis

David Merchant’s body is found in a bonfire in his back garden. David was a publisher and devout Christian. Who would want to kill this seemingly very decent man?

DI Hillary Greene faces one of her most puzzling cases as she struggles to find anyone with a strong motive to kill the pious publisher.

Then, as Hillary unearths greedy business partners and an estranged son, her focus is diverted when a new team member is targeted by a vicious gang.

Hillary’s under massive pressure and will she finally crack? And if she does, where will she go from here?

 

My Review

This is the tenth book in the bestselling series featuring DI Hilary Greene and written by Faith Martin.  It’s also the tenth book that I have read and the tenth book that I have absolutely and totally loved, but more about that in a bit.

DI Hilary Greene is a dedicated police women, who has a lot of experience.  She was married to Ronnie Greene, who was a bent policeman and who died not long after he was found out.  She has had something of a love life but nothing serious and nothing lasting any length of time.  She still attracts the men and her superior has a thing for her, but she doesn’t want to know.   At least there is one more positive thing for Hilary in this book because she has finally managed to get shot of DS Frank Ross, who was a sexist, racist, homophobic waste of space, who was good friends with Hilary’s late husband.  DI Greene is still mourning the loss of her close friend DCI Philip ‘Mellow’ Mallow, who was murdered in a previous book.  Mellow was married to somebody who used to work in Hilary’s team and who has just had a baby.  I got the sense that Hilary was getting tired of working in the police and I thought that she was in desperate need of a break.  ‘Murder By Fire’ also sees us learning more about Hilary’s history and what happened in her past.  The murder victim in this case is called David Merchant and he was a publisher as well as being a devout Methodist.  However ,the more I learnt about his behaviour and about him, the more I could understand why somebody had bumped him off.  He goes about his business but doesn’t hesitate to complain about anything and everything and enjoys rubbing people up the wrong way.  Thank goodness I didn’t have to live next to him.  Who murdered David Merchant and what was their motivation?  Will Hilary manage to apprehend the murderer?  What does the future hold for DI Hilary Greene?  Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.

Whenever I pick up a book written by Faith Martin, I just know that I am going to be in for one heck of a rollercoaster read.  That was definitely the case for me with ‘Murder By Fire’.  The story hits the ground running and maintains the pace throughout.  The writing style is such that you can’t fail to be drawn into the story and before you know it you are totally immersed in the investigation.  I found that I just had to keep on reading to find out how the investigation was going to conclude and to see what was going to happen to Hilary.  The characters are so well described that you could almost believe that they were real.  I found that I began to really care about Hilary and I felt like she was a friend, so of course I felt very defensive of her and at times I wanted to jump inside the pages to sort out whoever was upsetting her.  ‘Murder By Fire’ is one of those books that took me through a whole wealth of emotions and by the time I finished the book I really felt as though I had been through the emotional wringer.  ‘Murder By Fire’ was certainly a page turner for me and one of those books that is impossible to put down.  I didn’t realise how quickly I was advancing through the book until I looked up and realised that I had read 40% of the book.  I had mixed feelings about finishing the book because on the one hand I was pleased to discover who the murderer was and how the investigation concluded but on the other hand, I was disappointed to finish because I was enjoying the story, the writing style and the characters so much that I just wanted the book to continue.

I absolutely loved reading ‘Murder By Fire’ and I can’t wait to read what comes next from Faith Martin.  Faith Martin has to be one of my favourite and must read authors.  I would wholeheartedly recommend this author and the series featuring DI Hilary Greene to anybody and everybody.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a well deserved 5*  out of 5*.